Poker Day at Ballys

Haven't played poker on The Strip in over a week, so it was time to head to Ballys.

Got there about 10 a.m. and no game was going at the time. I was hoping there would be overnight action still going on, since the National Rodeo is in town and those cowboys love their poker as much as they love their ponies.

I walked to the sports book and bought a $25 ticket on Western Michigan -16.5 points in the big game against Ohio U. Then it was back to the poker room where I sipped coffee and talked with a couple of dealers until a game got going at 10:30. I bought in for $100 and my stack went up a down a bit for about two hours. One guy at the other end of the table, let's call him The Villain, kept stealing pots $10 pots with $100 raises. No one had a hand good enough to call those big raises and he kept building his stack until he had more than $400 in front of him.

I had about $150 in front of me when I looked down and found both red ACES peeking back at me. The Villain bet $15 and everyone else folded until it got to me and I raised it to $30. The Villain looked at his stack and counted out $75, shoving it into the pot and announcing "raise" with a sneer.
I hemmed and hawed, knowing full well I was going to wager every one of my chips on those Aces.
After 30 seconds or so, I announced "All In" pushing my stack toward the pot.

"Please call, Please call, Please call," I thought to myself.

"I Call" said the Villain, flipping over A-Q of spades.

I showed my two aces and his face flinched. He knew he was in BIG trouble. His hand never improved and my aces brought me a pot of over $300. That was the final hand Villain played. He took his remaining chips and headed to the cashier.

That was the highlight of my poker trip. Before I headed home, I stopped by The Nosh deli at Ballys and picked up two salads for dinner - a Greek salad and a chef salad. Helen enjoyed the chef salad while I had the Greek. They were uh, just OK. Lots of lettuce and green, but not enough other items to make them really interesting.

While I was gone, Helen was on the phone with sister Nat. She also opened a birthday package from Scott, Lisa and family. It's a bunch of lotions and beauty products.

We watched Western Michigan win the exciting game 29-23. My ticket was a loser, but it was fun watching the Broncos win the MAC title.

And so our adventure continues...